Put it in CAPS

We live in a funny time. We communicate through a virtual world more often than not. It occurred to me a couple of months ago that the way we write on Facebook or twitter or text can express various forms of emotion. It's actually pretty funny. The post that I found to be the most amusing was the nasty rumor that FB was going to become a pay site. So people's status' read something like "ATTENTION YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED TOMORROW IF YOU DON'T REPOST." You remember them right?! I found them annoying more than anything but the caps made the posts seem really, really "important". And while the majority of normal humans knew that this particular rumor wasn't true many more posted & reposted those cryptic messages complete with prices and further threats. So was it the all capital letters that made this seem more real? Not sure. I just imagined some techie nerd out there making this up just to see how many of us would fall for the joke & repost his message. Oh, Mark Zuckerberg would be so proud.

Let's play around with this a bit, shall we?

"I would like a piece of pizza."

"I WOULD LIKE A PIECE OF PIZZA"

Which statement seems more urgent to you? The second right? Seems like I really, really want a piece of pizza. (I kind of do...) This is also how we express anger. So how else to we express emotion through our media outlets?

:) happy :( sad :/ confused (maybe??)

;) winking happy. ;( winking sad

;-) winking happy with a nose

,) winking happy lost an eye

<3 heart... (the ideal way to say I love you)

Enough? Okay you get the point. These things make me laugh. Filtering what is real & fake in an online world can be difficult. Guaranteed next time you see a post full of caps you will probably think twice. Does she really want a piece of pizza or does she just sort of want one? Will that crazy Zuckerberg really make us pay for our favorite social network? (the answer is no, never EVER, I can explain why if you need me to) But the long scary posts made us think that maybe, possibly it could happen. So for fun's sake let's keep our posts dramatic, daunting even. Or add a winking smiley face when you're feeling mischievous. If nothing else it keeps things interesting.

I LIKE KNEE SOCKS. (true)

I WANT A CHEESE BURGER (false)

Hard to tell the difference, isn't it?

In case you all don't know what Mark Zuckerberg actually looks like I included a picture.

By giving people the power to share, we're making the world more transparent.
Mark Zuckerberg